North Carolina Passes Controversial Anti-Transgender Sports Bill: 'Governors In Other States Have Vetoed These Bills'

On Thursday, the Republican-controlled North Carolina state House passed a bill banning transgender girls and women from participating in sports teams that align with their gender identity.

What Happened: The state House voted 62-43, largely along party lines, to approve an amended version of the bill passed in the state Senate by a vote of 31-17 earlier this week, CNN reports. The bill, known as House Bill 574, states that a “student’s sex shall be recognized based solely on the student’s reproductive biology and genetics at birth,” and would require sports teams to be designated as for males, men or boys; females, women or girls; or coed or mixed. The bill does not address transgender boys playing on boys’ teams.

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Supporters of the bill, including its sponsor Rep. Erin Paré, argue that it ensures fairness in sports by requiring biological men to compete against biological men, not biological women. However, opponents, including the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ civil rights organization, call the bill discriminatory and urge Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper to veto it.

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"Republican governors in other states have vetoed these bills that bully vulnerable children because they know these decisions should be left to schools, parents and sports associations," Jordan Monaghan, Cooper's deputy communications director, added in a statement to CNN.

This development comes on the heels of North Carolina’s recent legalization of sports betting, a move that is expected to generate over $100 million of tax revenue per year within five years of launch, as reported by Benzinga.

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